The Disabled Living Foundation (DLF), a national charity providing impartial advice, information and training on independent living for over 40 years, has joined forces with Shaw Trust. The charities will merge at the end of November and DLF will retain its name, identity and staff.

The merger creates new opportunities for both organisations and will see the development of DLF’s essential information, advice and training. For Shaw Trust it enables the charity to develop its advisory services such as information, guidance and sign-posting for those it currently supports – and to a much wider community too.

ETNA is an EU-wide thematic network funded by the European Union involving 23 partner institutions. It was a three-year project that has now been launched to establish a web portal of ICT-based assistive technology. This multilingual portal includes ICT assistive products, related organisations, and projects. The portal allows access to repositories of freeware, open source and commercial software products and tools useful for e-accessibility.

The ways in which the general public access information is ever changing with individuals placing more importance in accessing the information they require in a quick and convenient manner. The past few years has seen a meteoric rise in the use of mobile devices being used for this purpose and with an ever growing audience from across the UK, DLF has launched a new mobile web app for AskSARA – www.asksara.org.uk - to meet this growing trend and to be at the forefront of using emerging technologies to meet users needs.

DLF-data, the DLF’s (Disabled Living Foundation) professional database of daily living equipment / assistive technology is now available as a web app for use on Smart Phones. This means therapists with a login could find product details, suppliers’ contact details, retailers and organisations via their phones when out on home visits or working across sites. They can give relevant details to service users then and there, and not have to wait till they are back in the office. Therapists attending last month’s Moving and Handling Conference 2013 described the DLF-data web app as “very helpful”, as containing a “Wealth of Information” and a “Great design”.